1. How do I use multimedia to teach a Chinese class well
Actively introduce multimedia teaching into Chinese classroom teaching, and use advanced computer technology and equipment to make an otherwise boring class Become vivid and vivid, which will greatly stimulate students' enthusiasm and enthusiasm for learning, and also more effectively improve the teaching effect of Chinese classes.
The introduction of multimedia information technology into Chinese classes is a sign that Chinese teaching has entered a new milestone. In my teaching, multimedia information technology has been fully used, and the classroom artistic effect is very obvious.
For example: "The Peach Blossom Spring" uses animated images and reading dubbing effects, which makes students feel as if they are on the scene and feel the tranquility, elegance, peace and harmony, and mysterious transformation of Tao Yuanming's paradise; "Back View" is touching. The tearful film and television effects made the students sigh and were moved by the great but ordinary father's love; the majestic momentum of the waterfall in "Huangguoshu Waterfall" amazed the students; a stirring song in the composition class "Symphony of Destiny" gave students a deeper understanding of the tenacious fighting spirit of Beethoven, a musical giant, after he lost his hearing. With the assistance of multimedia information technology, my Chinese classes are becoming more and more exciting, full of artistry, and deeply loved by students: before each class, I can win a burst of cheers from the students as soon as I turn on the mobile multimedia; At the end of the class, the students still looked full of interest and stayed in the classroom happily discussing the problems in the class.
In fact, my starting point is very simple, which is to strive to turn Chinese into an artistic class, so that students can regard learning Chinese as a beautiful artistic enjoyment and learn Chinese happily and relaxedly. In this way, it will be beneficial to both students and teachers.
Everyone can be freed from the boring and noisy teaching and become people who enjoy teaching and learning. Regarding the use of multimedia, I have some superficial ideas that I would like to discuss with teachers.
Take the completion of the teaching of the junior high school Chinese class "The Story of Love Lotus" as an example: 1. Actively use distance education resources to prepare for class. Every teacher who studies teaching knows that the success of a lesson does not entirely depend on the teacher's on-the-spot performance, but more importantly, the teacher's lesson preparation process.
In this process, it is very important for teachers to understand and master the teaching materials. An experienced teacher will always develop and utilize the teaching resources reasonably. Because of this, it is easier for them to teach a lesson well.
In the past, for teachers, the teaching resources we could use were nothing more than textbooks, teaching references, teaching flipcharts, teaching projections and teaching courseware. Among them, teaching projection and teaching courseware also require teachers to expend a lot of energy. Therefore, teachers will try to avoid time-consuming teaching design when preparing lessons.
Limited teaching resources seriously constrain teachers’ ideas for innovative classroom teaching. Now, the connection of middle school distance education resource network has appropriately solved the problems of teachers in the lesson preparation process.
Before taking the lesson "Ai Lian Shuo", I could not only easily find relevant teaching materials on the Internet, but also browse other people's teaching designs, teaching material analysis, teaching cases, and classrooms. Resources, knowledge expansion and other contents opened up my ideas for lesson preparation. As the saying goes: when three people walk together, there must be one teacher from me. After fully grasping the purpose of organizing the textbook, I made it clear that I want to help students understand some knowledge about the author and the lotus in this class, and cultivate students' love for the lotus and the gentleman.
After completing classroom teaching, the teaching effect will be obviously different. Distance education resources not only broaden teachers' horizons and help teachers change their teaching concepts, but also can learn from the teaching experience of other teachers to explore classroom teaching models suitable for rural children, effectively improve the quality of classroom teaching in rural primary schools, and create a better environment for rural children. The sky of the future.
2. Use multimedia rationally in the classroom teaching process to truly improve students' learning efficiency. One of the basic concepts of Chinese courses: strive to build an open and dynamic Chinese course.
Chinese courses should broaden the areas of Chinese learning and application, focus on interdisciplinary learning and the use of modern scientific and technological means, so that students can broaden their horizons and improve their learning through the mutual exchange, penetration and integration of different contents and methods. efficiency, and initially acquire the practical language skills required by modern society. When we continue to explore new teaching models, we not only want teachers to be energetic in the classroom, but the most important thing is to make students energetic in the classroom.
Reasonable use of distance education resources and hierarchical display of classroom knowledge stimulates students' interest in learning and improves their Chinese literacy. It is also an important means to cultivate students' active exploration, unity and cooperation, and courage to innovate. 1. Flexibly use the "preview test" to stimulate students' interest in learning and understand the full text.
First, I read "Lian's Mind" by Xi Murong aloud, created a situation, and brought the students into a peaceful and beautiful atmosphere. Then I checked the students' preview status, such as using multimedia to present new words and key words. Explain that the method of using students as teachers breaks the old teaching method of teachers presenting questions and students answering collectively or teachers naming individual students to answer. It provides students with an opportunity to show their talents and exercise courage. During the process of students asking questions at will, It not only allows students to solve the words they have not mastered, but also consolidates the knowledge of this lesson by correcting other people's easy-to-make words. This kind of teaching method not only makes students feel fresh, but also can fully attract students' attention and mobilize students' interest in learning. It really activates the classroom atmosphere and improves students' learning efficiency.
It also cultivates their independent and cooperative learning abilities. 2. Appropriately use the "read-a-read" resource to lead students to read the full text.
Being able to read texts correctly, fluently and emotionally in Mandarin is the general requirement for reading aloud. Reading aloud is one of the basic skills in Chinese language courses and should be cultivated from an early age.
The reality is: Our rural students do not speak Mandarin at home, and when they come to school they only speak it in class, and teachers cannot correct it for a while. When reading the text, both teachers and students need to improve their Mandarin proficiency from here.
The multimedia reading design replaces the tape recorder. What is more advanced than the tape recorder is that it can also provide corresponding text passages. Students and teachers can more easily follow, imitate or practice reading texts repeatedly, and master the tone and rhythm of reading with different emotions.
Therefore, I think there should be the sound of reading in Chinese classes. As classical Chinese, it is even more important to read more and understand while reading. This is better reflected in this class. I designed it in a variety of ways. 2. How to play the role of multimedia in Chinese teaching
How to play the role of multimedia in Chinese teaching With the development of modern science and technology, computers have entered the field of education in our country and have developed rapidly.
The application of computers in education has led to changes in teaching methods, teaching methods, teaching material concepts and forms, classroom teaching structures, and even teaching ideas and teaching theories. With the development of computers today, multimedia-assisted teaching has increasingly entered middle school classrooms, especially Chinese classes. We should actively take advantage of modern teaching aids and carefully produce relevant courseware to make up for the deficiencies of some aspects of traditional teaching methods. ; Students should also be actively organized to participate in the production of courseware to make Chinese classroom teaching more active and fulfilling.
The application of multimedia technology in teaching has become a reality. Multimedia technology has advantages in education and teaching that traditional teaching methods cannot achieve: 1. The use of multimedia can stimulate interest to a higher degree. Some people say: "Interest is the best teacher."
As a teacher, your first priority is to make the students you teach like the subject you teach. Chinese language, as a subject with strong humanities, is even more so.
Because driven by strong interest, students will be able to focus on learning, and their efficiency in acquiring knowledge will also be greatly improved. To maintain students' strong interest in learning, it is necessary to create intuitive, lively, and interesting learning situations for students.
Compared with the simple language narration of traditional teaching, the colorful, pleasant tones and lively pictures, videos, audios, pictures, animations, etc. displayed by multimedia are undoubtedly more able to mobilize and stimulate their initiative. . The authenticity, image, and interest of the situations it creates are unmatched by other media and means.
(1) Music creates an atmosphere. When I was studying Su Dongpo's "Niannujiao·Chibi Nostalgia", since this poem was about the poet expressing his nostalgia on the ancient battlefield of Chibi and comparing himself with the Zhou Yu in the Three Kingdoms, I played Yang Hongji in the courseware during the lecture. The theme song of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was sung to create an atmosphere of historical vicissitudes, bringing the students to the Three Kingdoms era. Coupled with some edited pictures from the film, the students were completely integrated into Su Dongpo's emotional world along with the music.
When I was studying Sun Li's "Anecdotes of the Dead", I chose a video of "Jiangchengzi·Ten Years of Life and Death" recited by Li Moran from CCTV's "Ziwu Letters", and I instantly understood Mobilize students' emotions and integrate them into the feelings of commemorating the deceased. (2) Pictures create an atmosphere.
When studying the text "Autumn in the Old Capital", I showed students pictures of autumn scenery in the introductory part of the courseware to create an atmosphere of autumn and impress the students intuitively. When studying "Ode to the Mountains and Rivers of the Motherland", "Two Groups of Pictures" and "Annie's Diary", I selected a large number of pictures to give the students a direct visual experience and let them experience the beauty and history of the mountains and rivers of the motherland. Heavy, Nazi brutality... Creating an atmosphere is not limited to music and pictures, but can also be videos, audio, etc.
It can use students' vision, hearing, touch, smell, feeling, etc. from multiple angles, and can also use a variety of methods to create an environment that fits the theme of the article, so that students can feel as if they are personally visiting the scene and experiencing it. things, thereby achieving ideal teaching results. For example, when I was teaching "Sunset", I played a video of the Japanese signing the surrender document on the USS Missouri in 1945, so that the students could feel the historical atmosphere and understand the joy of the people at that time.
2. Multimedia-assisted teaching can effectively increase classroom density and improve efficiency per unit time. As we all know, the knowledge capacity displayed to us by multimedia per unit time is incomparable to traditional education and teaching.
Through multimedia technology, the channels for classroom information transmission are increased, the capacity of information transmission per unit time is increased, the density of the classroom is increased, and teaching content can be fully expressed, key points highlighted, and difficulties overcome. Because there is no need to write too much when using multimedia blackboard writing, and questions do not need to be repeated, and with the help of intuitive images, some content does not need to be discussed at length, and students already know it. In this way, our teachers can teach students as much as possible what they have mastered. , allowing students to expand their knowledge to the greatest extent and enrich their knowledge warehouse.
Especially when taking review classes for senior high school students, we must pay more attention to the use of multimedia. For example, I fully realized this when I imitated sentence patterns for students.
I first introduce the requirements and types of imitation to the students, and then show some common imitation forms to the students one by one with example sentences, and then classify the questions and let the students do their homework in class and use the physical projector to do the homework. In this way, teachers can grasp the students' acceptance level and have an idea in mind. They can provide targeted and targeted training in future teaching to avoid blind operation and the phenomenon of all-in-one teaching. Of course, things like poetry appreciation, classical Chinese translation, incorrect sentences, etc. can all use multimedia to reduce the burden on teachers and students and improve the efficiency of classroom review.
3. The use of multimedia can better mobilize enthusiasm. Suhomlinsky pointed out: If teachers do not find ways to make students have an inner state of high emotions and intellectual excitement, they will be eager to impart knowledge and do not use emotional mental work. It will bring fatigue. Therefore, he requires teachers to stimulate students' emotional zones, and requires students to make discoveries when learning and applying knowledge, so that they can feel their progress when making such discoveries. However, traditional teaching only focuses on the infusion of knowledge and relies solely on teachers. A mouth and a pen often leave teachers with dry mouths and confused students, and the teaching methods are relatively monotonous. Students are prone to fatigue and boredom during the learning process, and their interest in learning will naturally be affected to a certain extent.
Especially now that there are more literary works with strong humanities in the new courses for the first and second grade of high school, the teaching effect may not be very good if only relying on the teacher's simple preaching. Last year I listened to "A Person's Experience" taught by Teacher Xiong Fangfang. She handled it particularly well. She edited the video and then paired it with the content of the article, which allowed students to better understand the article and make it more vivid. Understand Sokolov’s experiences and inner world in the article.
Because the situations provided by multimedia are vivid and real, students can see the person, hear their voice, and be there, which can arouse their interest, trigger their imagination, and help mobilize students to actively explore. , take the initiative to learn, so that they can truly become the main body of learning. But introduce advanced technology into classroom teaching. 3. How to apply information technology in ancient Chinese teaching
With the development of the times and the advancement of science and technology, human education levels and educational methods are also constantly improving.
Today, information technology-assisted teaching has been increasingly introduced into schools and directly into classrooms, with its distinctive teaching characteristics. Rich teaching content and vivid teaching situations promote the informatization of educational technology and gradually break the traditional teaching method of "one blackboard, one piece of chalk, one mouth and everyone listens", which is mainly indoctrinated by teachers, and build a new type of teaching. model.
Information technology can fully mobilize students' subjectivity, promote students' active thinking, active exploration, and develop associative thinking through situation creation and collaborative learning, so that students can truly become the main body of information processing in the learning process. Active constructors of meaning. This article talks about my superficial understanding of the application of information technology in the teaching of ancient Chinese poetry and the precautions for future application.
Chinese teaching carries the responsibility of spreading ancient Chinese culture, and ancient poetry occupies a unique place in Chinese textbooks with its unique charm. They either place their feelings on flowers and plants, or express personal aspirations and experiences. Their unique implication and artistic conception bring us endless aesthetic enjoyment, but also bring certain difficulties to our teaching: they talk too much, but the poetic flavor is too light; The lectures are less and the flavor is too strong. I am afraid that students will not be able to fully understand it.
From this point of view, it is difficult for students to understand the artistic conception of poetry and learn ancient poetry well by relying solely on conventional teaching explanations. However, by taking advantage of multimedia and optimizing teaching, it can be achieved An effective way to express the artistic conception of poetry. 1. Create situations, stimulate students’ interest, and interpret the content of poetry more intuitively and vividly.
Teaching situation refers to "the teacher introduces, manufactures or creates based on the teaching needs in order to achieve the established teaching purpose in the teaching process, which can arouse students' emotional experience and help students quickly and correctly understand the teaching content , promote the comprehensive and harmonious development of their psychological functions, and improve teaching efficiency through specific scenes or atmospheres that are suitable for the teaching content. "Due to the influence of traditional teaching, teachers speak and students listen; teachers write on the blackboard. Student records; teachers ask questions and students answer; the disadvantages of emphasizing teaching and neglecting learning, emphasizing knowledge instillation and neglecting ability cultivation ignore the subjectivity of students, resulting in students being passive in learning.
Therefore, it is pointed out in the "Chinese Curriculum Standards": "Teaching should follow the students' physical and mental development rules and Chinese learning rules, and choose different teaching strategies. Children's life experience should be fully utilized in teaching, and multiple teaching methods should be used. An intuitive and vivid means to create rich and colorful teaching situations. ”
Ancient poetry has a very obvious rhythm, harmonious rhythm, and musical beauty; music is an auditory language and a poem of the human soul. They have similarities and compatibility. Setting the situation through music can exaggerate the atmosphere, highlight the poetic scene, and play the main melody of the poem.
We can use the beautiful melody of music to set off the wonderful artistic conception of poetry, match the bold with high-spirited tunes, the melancholy with sad and desolate tunes, the clear with fresh and bright tunes, and the sad. Paired with sad and desolate music, which varies from poem to poem, this three-dimensional effect on students' sight and hearing can best connect them with their emotions, move their hearts, and understand their thoughts. For example, when teaching Su Shi's "Niannujiao·Chibi Nostalgic", the theme song "Rolling Waters of the Yangtze River East" from "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" can be played before class, creating a magnificent but somewhat desolate atmosphere before class, allowing students to gain the beauty of music while , and also gain an emotional experience.
When teaching Su Shi's "Shui Tiao Ge Tou - When Will the Bright Moon Come", you can play the animated recitation. The male voice's recitation, which is full of rhythm and emotion, will affect every student. "There should be no hatred." The resentment of "when will we be reunited when we say goodbye?" is emotional; the good wishes of "I hope you will live long, and thousands of miles away from the beauty of the moon" are even more exciting and exciting. I also heard a Chinese teacher play the song "Yangguan Sandie" when teaching the farewell poem "Send Yuan Er Envoy Anxi".
The repeatedly chanted lyrics and the beautiful and cool melody penetrated into the students' hearts, making the students deeply understand the poet's melancholy for his friend's departure, and then achieved the purpose of sublimating the feelings. 2. Make difficulties easy, reduce the burden, and facilitate the recitation of poems. According to the requirements of quality education, the burden on students should be reduced in classroom teaching and the teaching efficiency should be improved.
Psychology believes that primary school students are curious and active, and their continuous attention time limit in a class is only twenty minutes. How to use this optimal time for teaching in classroom teaching is the key to reducing students' burden and improving teaching quality.
Due to the limitations of teaching media, traditional teaching methods generally focus on the key points of the text. The teacher explains carefully and analyzes carefully, and the students take notes and memorize them. Experimental psychologist Trichila conducted an experiment on the persistence of knowledge in memory: People can generally remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they heard, 30% of what they saw, and 30% of what they heard. 50% of what is heard and seen, 70% of what is said during the communication process.
This means that if you can both hear and see, and then express it in your own language through discussion and communication, the retention of knowledge will be much better than traditional teaching. Multimedia teaching has advantages in this regard.
Poems are generally required to be recited. Through picture demonstrations, students’ imagination, and students explaining their feelings about the poems, a poem or word can often be memorized in class and be deeply remembered. . This is much better than traditional rote learning.
We can also use the "ancient poetry filling" activity in teaching, listing a set of poems, each poem has one or two gaps, and asking students to drag the corresponding graphics to the gaps in the poems (missing holes) word) position. Such as this set of poems: 1. Liulianxi ( ) dances from time to time, and is free and charming ( ) just cries.
(Du Fu's "Seven Quatrains on Walking Alone by the River Looking for Flowers") 2. The bright moon leaves the branches startled ( ), and the breeze blows in the middle of the night ( ). (Xin Qiji's "Moon over the Xijiang River" 3. The fragrance of rice flowers talks about a good year, and listen to the sound of ( ).
(Xin Qiji's "Moon over the Xijiang River"... There are gaps in every line of the poem. At this time, students only need to write "Butterfly" ”, “orio”, “magpie”, “cicada”, “frog”, drag these graphics into the corresponding positions, the graphics will become text, and the poem will be complete. In this way, students not only memorize the poem, but also add some new meanings to it. Perceptual understanding of poetry.
3. Expand and search for information, which is conducive to accumulating information resources on ancient poetry, including the characteristics of five continents, and rich and informative audio, video, and text on the Internet. Appropriate use of multimedia teaching methods in Chinese teaching
How to appropriately use multimedia teaching methods in Chinese teaching?
Answer: 1. In the teaching process, multimedia teaching methods should be used skillfully as teaching content. Services should not be static.
2. In the teaching process, use multimedia courseware skillfully to improve teaching efficiency and avoid blind indoctrination.
3. In the teaching process, use multimedia teaching methods skillfully. In order to cultivate students' abilities, we must not blindly pursue innovation.
How to make multimedia teaching methods truly serve the Chinese classroom so that every Chinese teacher can choose the appropriate time to apply it skillfully and with ease. This is what every Chinese teacher needs to do. The goal that teachers should pursue unremittingly. If Chinese classroom teaching is a blooming bud, then multimedia teaching is a green leaf that is the icing on the cake. The two complement each other and integrate into each other, creating a pleasant and interesting situation for students and optimizing the Chinese classroom. Improved the quality of Chinese teaching.
5. How to use multimedia in Chinese teaching
With the development of modern educational technology, the use of multimedia technology to assist classroom teaching has gradually been widely used.
There is no doubt that the advantages of this educational technology are unmatched by traditional teaching methods. It can make shape, sound and color blend into one.
Present some complex processes that cannot be expressed by traditional teaching methods, some phenomena that are difficult to observe and capture, and some scenes that cannot be presented on-site, in a real and vivid way in the classroom, creating vivid, vivid, and Situations with strong appeal can mobilize students' enthusiasm for learning, enable students to better master knowledge, thereby improving the effectiveness of teaching. It is interesting and intuitive that traditional teaching methods do not have. It can fully mobilize the enthusiasm, initiative and creativity of teachers and students, break through the key and difficult points of teaching, so that it is easier to achieve the teaching purpose and enable students to learn in a pleasant and relaxed environment. Gain knowledge.
Application in Chinese teaching 1. Create situations to enhance the teaching effect of Chinese classes. The use of multimedia can create situations. Multimedia technology integrates text, sound, images, animation, and video to make the abstract words in Chinese classes vivid, emotional, and meaningful. "Teaching in context" can induce feelings, promote perception, and create a A positive and harmonious learning atmosphere enables students to enter the situation unconsciously, thereby enhancing the teaching effect of Chinese classes.
For example, when studying "Goral Flying Crossing", in order to let students understand the shocking and earth-shattering crossing, I played the Maling River Gorge in the drizzle while listening to the music that made people cry. Picturesque scenery, while introducing: If your heart is calm enough, you can hear the intimate words between the boy and his parents in this song in his dream; if your eyes are sharp enough, you can capture the boy losing his parents The sad eyes; if your emotions are rich enough, you can feel the true love flowing in this song! Because behind this great song, there is a shocking story. ...And when the tragedy happened, at the moment of life and death, Pan Tianqi and his young wife invariably held up their two-and-a-half-year-old son with both hands, and used their amazing perseverance to win the child's life. Rebirth.
Later, singer Han Hong adopted the child and wrote the song "Dawn" for him. When Han Hong's song "Daybreak" sounded at the end of the story, the class was so quiet that it was suffocating. The shocking and sad atmosphere was unforgettable for me. The students were conquered and intoxicated by the exquisite pictures, beautiful music and touching voices. In the blend of emotion and scenery, it creates an excellent situation for introducing the love of animals into the text.
2. The content is rich and can stimulate students' interest in learning. In traditional Chinese teaching, teachers teach students static verbal symbols, which cannot achieve full sensory stimulation, and cannot give full play to students' enthusiasm and enthusiasm. Initiative, and multimedia technology can just make up for this shortcoming. It makes Chinese teaching rich and colorful, and various pictures, courseware, and CDs are widely used, so that Chinese teaching is no longer about students passively accepting the teacher’s symbolic information, but about students in Under the guidance of teachers, actively seek knowledge from resources. Chinese language teaching is not only about training students to know a few words and write a few decent articles, but also through classroom teaching to enable students to feel and experience the charm of articles, figure out the unique artistic language of literary works, and understand the unique artistic value of literary works. , appreciate the wisdom and creativity of the saint.
When teaching the article "Letter to Captain Butler on the British-French Allied Forces' Expedition to China", I used multimedia means to play a computer-simulated set of beautiful scenes from the Old Summer Palace on a large screen, and then compared them with today's The video of "The Burning of the Old Summer Palace" was played on the ruins of the building. The students' love for human civilization and hatred for the crimes of British and French bandits suddenly emerged, and they realized Hugo's integrity and greatness as a Frenchman and a writer with conscience.
3. The novel form strengthens the interaction between teachers and students. Teachers and students can use multimedia technology to communicate with each other related to the content they have learned. It can be between students and students, or it can be The communication between teachers and students can also be the communication between students and the media. For example, when I talk about the article "Luop Nur, the Lost Fuxian Lake", it will involve the water resources situation of our country, the water resources situation of our province, and the water resources situation of our city. Then I raise the question: "Our country, our province, What is the water resource situation in our city? "Students can look for answers online, communicate online, or send emails for advice, etc., and then summarize and formulate answers to answer the teacher's questions.
This not only makes the learning process no longer boring, but also fully mobilizes students' learning enthusiasm and initiative, enhances students' cognition, and the classroom teaching effect will be greatly improved. 4. Save teaching time and expand classroom capacity. In traditional Chinese teaching, teachers are often tired of writing on the blackboard, words, writers’ works, structural outlines, etc. Teachers can make the things needed for teaching in advance during production, leaving more space for more. More time to expand, improve, practice, and expand students' horizons.
And set aside more time for students to read, think, discuss, and summarize, so as to optimize the teaching process to the maximum extent. The intervention of multimedia technology has transformed Chinese teaching from a single, one-way information transmission form in the past to a multiple, multi-directional transmission form.
The classroom teaching model is no longer limited to the Chinese teacher’s explanation and indoctrination, and students’ acceptance and obedience, but has become an interactive activity between students and teachers, students and students, teachers and students and the media. Classroom teaching can be optimized and teaching efficiency can be improved. Issues that should be noted: 1. Don’t be led by multimedia. Many teachers’ teaching steps in multimedia courseware are pre-made. During the classroom teaching process, teachers lead students step by step according to the presets of the courseware.
From review, introduction, new teaching to practice, everything is displayed layer by layer and link by link through the courseware. The knowledge points that students should discuss and think about step by step are all displayed at once. Come out and the answer will appear. Although the courseware has a beautiful interface, high technical content, and large capacity, because there is no emphasis on key points and difficult knowledge in the courseware, and students have no time to think and consolidate, the expected teaching effect must not be achieved in the end.
2. Don’t overwhelm the guest. In some open Chinese courses, we often see some teachers compiling courseware for the sake of courseware, and reluctantly pile up some content that seems to be related to the text but is actually irrelevant to the computer, making it difficult to read.